Dr. Brock Nolin gives the thumbs up with faculty wearing masks last year

School drops mask mandate

By Michael Butler

The Tallassee City School System has decided to not extend its mask mandate due to a drop in Covid numbers.

"The trend has been declining. We have been less than one positive per five days," TCS superintendent Dr. Brock Nolin said referring to the period from Oct. 11 - 15. "There were several days we had zero. I'll continue to watch that."

The mask policy has been moved to "mask optional" as of Oct. 20.

"We'll still continue to monitor. If we see the trend go in the other direction, we may decide to mask or mask a school in paricular where there may be a hot spot. Right now we're doing pretty good."

With the advent of flu season, Nolin noted that the similarity of symptoms may create some issues.

"I'll keep my data chart. I have two trend lines. One is Covid-like symptoms - which is pretty much everything you can think of. The other is confirmed cases. It's been low for several weeks."

Numbers, not only in Tallassee, but across the board have been down.

"Statewide they've declined," Nolin added. "The indicator that this variant was a fast burner, seems to be the case here. We had a real spike for a few weeks, then they declined. I'm not saying we won't have to go back to it - we're talking about the proverbial crystal ball - I would love to not have to."